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--- transportation:electric_standing_scooters [2025/08/22 20:39] – [Ninebot] timb
+++ transportation:electric_standing_scooters [2026/05/29 05:09] (current) – [Safety] timb
@@ Line 419: / Line 419: @@
 https://maxmautner.com/2024/04/26/electric-scooters.html
+== The e-scooter isn’t new – London was zooming around on Autopeds a century ago ==
+The e-scooters that clutter up pavements may seem like a new thing, but a hundred years ago, there were already people zooming around London on powered scooters
+th December 2025 - Ian Mansfield
+These were the Autoped, an American import that was once popular enough to regularly appear in the newspapers before vanishing seemingly without a trace.
+Invented in the USA in 1915, they first appeared in London in 1917, despite a ban on imports during WWI, and really took off when the import ban was lifted in 1919.
+By today’s standards, they look like a bargain, selling for just £36, although that’s actually about £1,600 in today’s money, so they were really aimed at the wealthy buyers.
+Gamage’s, the people’s emporium, described them as being made for everybody who feels the necessity of making the most of time, of conserving health and energy, and keeping travelling expenses down to the minimum.
+It was said to be able to reach speeds of 10mph, and unlike modern versions, the Autoped was powered by petrol.
+https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the-e-scooter-isnt-new-london-was-zooming-around-on-autopeds-a-century-ago-86263/
@@ Line 559: / Line 578: @@
 https://electrek.co/2022/10/19/high-tech-aike-t-electric-scooter-gets-worlds-first-proximity-unlocking-feature/
+== Bankrupt scooter startup left one private key to rule them all ==
+Owner reverse-engineered his ride, revealing authentication was never properly individualized
+Carly Page - Fri 16 Jan 2026 11:59 UTC
+An Estonian e-scooter owner locked out of his own ride after the manufacturer went bust did what any determined engineer might do. He reverse-engineered it, and claims he ended up discovering the master key that unlocks every scooter the company ever sold.
+The company in question, Äike, which filed for bankruptcy last year, built app-controlled electric scooters that rely on a phone and backend servers to do as basic a task as turning them on. That setup worked while the startup was still around. Once it wasn't, owners were left with pricey scooters that only unlocked when the cloud happened to answer.
+Some features limped along for a while, others stopped altogether. So rather than trust his commute to a bankrupt startup's servers, one owner, Rasmus Moorats, an Estonian security researcher and penetration tester, took matters into his own hands and started poking around to see how the scooter really worked.
+A closer look at the Android app and Bluetooth traffic showed that locking, unlocking, and basic status checks all occur locally over Bluetooth, with the cloud mostly along for the ride.
+Before accepting commands, the scooter runs a simple authentication check: it sends a short challenge, the app replies with a cryptographic response, and access is granted. It's designed to stop random passers-by from hopping on and riding off. In theory, at least.
+https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/16/bankrupt_scooter_startup_key/
@@ Line 1819: / Line 1854: @@
 https://onezero.medium.com/demystifying-e-scooter-safety-one-step-at-a-time-956afcf12d75
+== Two Dead After Illegal Scooter Rider And Cyclist Crash On Queensboro Bridge ==
+Street safety advocates have been criticizing city officials for failing to fully grasp the dangers of e-motos and illegal stand-up scooters for years.
+Sophia Lebowitz - 2:01 PM EDT on May 28, 2026
+Two people died in a head-on crash on the Queensboro Bridge bike lane between the rider of an illegal e-scooter with a top speed of 50 miles per hour and a cyclist, underscoring the need for enforcement against illegal, super-fast micromobility vehicles.
+According to the NYPD, the 39-year-old rider of the illegal scooter was headed up hill from Queens at around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday when he struck the 35-year-old cyclist traveling downhill into Queens head. Both men were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian where they died. (The NYPD has not released the victims’ names, but a police source ID’d the men as Francis Delball on the scooter and Dmytro Stechenko on the bike.)
+Pictures posted to Reddit after the crash show a carbon-fiber Factor road bike cracked in half and the illegal scooter in the debris:
+After the crash, one victim’s road bike was snapped in half from impact. Photo: Reddit
+One witness who pulled up to the crash just after it happened described the gory scene.
+https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/05/28/two-dead-after-illegal-scooter-rider-and-cyclist-crash-on-queensboro-bridge
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